Red and Black Hockey

Carolina’s top pairing defenseman Joe Corvo suffered a freakish injury on Monday night and will miss a significant chunk of the rest of the season. While his injury was nowhere near as freakish as the one that Tomas Vokoun suffered, it was much more severe. Corvo bumped Caps defenseman Karl Alzner as the latter was coming off the ice. There was nothing unusual about the contact. Alzner’s left leg went behind Corvo’s right leg, and somehow Alzner’s skate cut the back of Corvo’s leg. Corvo immediately went down, clutching his calf, left the ice and went to the hospital.

The Hurricanes are being tight-lipped about the specifics of the injury, but have reported that Dr. Marty Isbell has made “repairs” to Corvo’s leg. He is expected to miss 2-3 months and will be placed on the IR immediately. No word yet on a call-up from Albany, but I assume it will be Bryan Rodney.

In addition to being a first pairing defenseman, Corvo is the quarterback on the first power play unit. He also led Canes defensemen and was fifth on the team with 12 (4/8) points. For a team that’s already beaten and fragile, this is going to be a very tough pill to swallow.